Lessons
by Tk DuVeraun
Summary: (SW:TOR) Aaron is taken by his master to Korriban where he meets his intended and proceeds to learn what being Sith really means. But Korriban is just the beginning of everything he has to learn and nothing comes easily to a Sith.
1. Lessons

"Sailens, this is my student, Aaron. Aaron, this is Sailens Sa'alle. I told you about the agreement I have with Lord Sa'alle, correct?"

Aaron scowls, but gives his future bride a once over. Human, pale, red-hair, scarred, tattooed. His nose scrunches up in distaste. _She looks weak._ His gaze turns back up to his tall, Sith pureblood master. "I remember. I still think it's stupid…"

Darth Rencarn cuffs him hard behind the ear and Aaron pulls on the Force to keep his feet. "Either speak proper Imperial Basic, or remain silent."

Sailens doesn't seem to react to his punishment. She raises a single red eyebrow and it pulls the tattooing around her eyes up with it. A droid zips between them from over her shoulder and speaks for her. "Politics are what make us stronger. You are stupid to shun them so."

_Sa'alles too high and mighty to speak for themselves?_ He reaches out to smack the droid down, but it zips out of his reach. He scoffs. "Forgive me for not being _overjoyed_ to be engaged to someone with no choice in the matter." Aaron's voice cracks halfway through the sentence and he hopes his skin is dark enough to hide the red of shame.

The round droid zig-zags through the air again. "Because engagement to a person of your choosing is vitally important to a twelve year old." Sailens isn't even looking at him when her droid talks. Her eyes are trained on the Sith Temple behind his master.

Before Aaron can shoot back a response, Darth Rencarn has cuffed him again. He addresses the girl, red jowls jiggling as he speaks. "He'll learn to accept it, in time. Until then, he'll stop complaining. _Won't he_?"

The menace in his master's voice is enough to freeze the blood in Aaron's veins. He forces out a small nod.

"There's no need to inform Lord Sa'alle of his belligerence, _is there_?" Rencarn's voice drips with malice and Aaron's gut reaction to is hope Sailens responds positively. Even a legacy Sith doesn't deserve-

"Of course not, my lord. The matter is beneath her notice." Her droid bobs and lets out its mechanical voice and Aaron rescinds all of his humanitarian thoughts about her.

_Let the arrogant brat get it._

She bows to Rencarn, red braid falling over her shoulder with the motion. "If that is all, my lord."

His master waves a dismissive hand and Sailens walks away, feet notably _not_ sinking into the hot, Korriban sand with every step. Aaron tilts his head, wondering if he's seeing things, but his master's voice brings his attention back.

"Don't mess this up. Don't be fooled by Sa'alle's title, there's not a man among them that could not rip out your heart with a blink."

Aaron refuses to let his arms shake from the mental image that calls up. "I'm not going to fail." His voice cracks again, but he presses on, regardless. "There's no reason to make me team up with Sa'alle. I'm strong." He raises his hand and clenches his fist for his master, using the Force to make Korriban's sands swirl up and spray between them.

Rencarn's yellow eyes roll in his head. "I am going to return to my _real work_. If you can manage to torture someone without collapsing and vomiting all over yourself, then I may consider changing the arrangement."

Aaron's cheeks burn with shame and he clenches both of his hands into fists at his sides. The muscles in his arm twitch, wanting to lash out and strike his master, but he keeps them in check.

Rencarn clicks his tongue and nods, the movement sending off reflected light from his facial jewellery. "Scared of retribution, finally? Good, but you'll have to take some risks if you want to survive the Academy, _boy_."

Aaron grits his teeth and waits for his master to depart. When the coast is clear, he lets out a wordless shout and kicks the sand. He growls and stomps back to the temple, his feet sinking into the sand and his steps dragging with the effort. "Stupid Korriban. I don't need to be trained here. I already have _have_ a master."

"You're not here to learn, you're Rencarn's trophy and a pathetic one, at that."

Aaron looks up and Sailens is laying up on top of one of the stone walls leading up to the temple. Her droid bobs and weaves in the air in front of him. He swats at it again, but it dances just out of range. "At least I'm not too pretentious to use my own voice."

Sailens flips off of the wall and lands a step in front of Aaron, feet _still_ not sinking into the sand. She tilts her head to one side and opens her mouth, revealing her distinct lack of tongue.

Aaron jerks back. "Eww."

"This is my own voice. You had best get used to it." She looks down at his feet, boots two centimeters below the sand line. "And to knocking sand out of your shoes, if that's the best you can do, half-breed."

* * *

There's an official ceremony to formalize the engagement and Aaron realizes that Sailens isn't actually her name. His intended's legal name is simply an identification number because she _has_ no name. He spends the rest of ceremony considering why she might not have a name, despite the occasional, painful jets of Force Rencarn sends his way to make him pay attention.

At the end, they stand together, symbolically holding hands and Sailens's droid says quietly into his ear, "Sa'alles must earn their names."

Aaron nods just as they're separated and dragged off to their respective dormitories in the Sith academy.

* * *

"Get up, boy; you're late."

Aaron yells and falls out of his bunk when the overseer shocks him. He rolls to his knees and grits his teeth. "My first class isn't for another hour, my lord."

The tall, Zabrak overseer backhands him and Aaron falls back to the floor. "Not anymore. Darth Rencarn had you moved up to the next class of acolytes. Now get moving, half-breed."

Aaron spits the blood out of his mouth and gets to his feet, staggers towards the door in his bed clothes. He turns right, moving to where the history lessons are held. A burning pain spreads across his back and he looks over his shoulder to the overseer.

"Combat training, wretch."

The overseer throws his training uniform at him and, to his shame, Aaron flinches before catching them. He sprints to the combat area, dragging his clothes on as he goes and using the Force to catch his step when he trips on his sleep pants.

Even if Sailens was weak-looking, her class of acolytes weren't. The overseer, a pureblood like his master, barks at him for being late. Aaron sees the smirks on the faces of his new classmates and can easily read their intentions from their lazy posture and smirks.

_We'll see who's smirking later, you kriffs._ Aaron follows the overseer's instructions and stands in the center of the dueling circle. He tunes out the overseer's voice, focuses his attention on the kaleesh student that makes his way into the circle with him. The other acolyte is taller than him and the weathered marks on his bone mask let Aaron know the other is years older than him.

Aaron puts his attention on his opponent's feet so he can catch the first movement, but something else distracts him. The kaleesh's feet are just as sunk into the sand as his own. If this is Sailens's class of acolytes, she might be the only one that knows the trick with the sand.

His distraction costs him and the kaleesh nails him in the shoulder. Aaron rolls his shoulder back with the motion and then raises his own fist in counter. He makes contact, but dances out of range instead of following through with the motion and leaving himself open. _Thanks for trying to embarrass me. Now I get to show off_.

He laughs and settles into his battle focus. His master might be a sorcerer, but Aaron was all combat. Aaron dances in and out of range, landing a punch here, a kick there, nothing crippling, but aside from the first hit, he's left untouched. A hot wind blows sand on him and it sticks to his sweat.

Aaron knows his white grin makes a harsh contrast with his dark skin. "Had enough, yet?"

The kaleesh growls and lunges at him.

Aaron laughs and jabs his right hand out in a solid punch. The mask gives a satisfying crack under his knuckles. The other acolyte yells, clutching his face before backing out of the circle. Aaron throws his head back and laughs, spreads his arms in victory. Only to be knocked to his knees by the overseer.

"Don't get cocky. We've only just begun."

As Aaron gets to his feet, he notices that the overseer's boots don't sink into the sand either.


	2. Alone or Not

Aaron is a nerf caught in the speeder lights. Wide-eyed, he stares at the overseer, almost hypnotized but the glittering silver jewellery in his face. _The other class of acolytes didn't have to take lessons taught in only Sith!_

The red-skinned overseer says something else. Maybe repeats the question, probably insults him. He fumbles with his datapad and then nails his gaze to it. Aaron doesn't know what the question _is_, but even if he did, he doesn't know _any_ Sith history apart from the five lessons he took with the other class before getting bumped up.

Since "checking his notes" doesn't result in immediate punishment, he clutches the datapad in his sweaty hands and prays to anyone that might be listening for the answer. Miraculously, it comes. Sith words written out in Basic characters scrawl across the electronic screen and Aaron reads them out without wasting any time second-guessing his good luck.

He's rewarded with a curt nod, after which his datapad clatters onto his desk. He lets out a shuddering breath and stares at the datapad in wonder. Before his eyes, the words disappear and are replaced with the sentence: _Don't embarrass me_.

Aaron looks up, peeking around the room to see Sailens with her gaze on the overseer, but her hand aiming a rude gesture in his direction under her desk. _Why would she help me?_

The question haunts him for the remainder of the class. It's not as if he could understand anything anyone said, anyway. Rencarn knew he didn't speak a word of Sith, so why had he been moved into this class with Sailens?

When he's dismissed by the overseer with a parting shock for his trouble, he follows Sailens around the Academy compound, hoping to get her alone. Her droid trails about a meter behind her and he uses it as a guide when he loses sight of her between the buildings. Eventually they're alone between sand-swept buildings, but before he can call out to her, she puts her bare palm flat against the stone.

Head tilted, Aaron walks up behind her shoulder in time to see metal bands shoot out of the stone and trap her hand there. A wicked, three centimeter needle pops out of the stone and creeps towards her skin. He cries out, but she slaps him away with her free hand. The green light from a scanner emits from around her hand and the metal bands retract.

Her droid knocks into his shoulder. "Unlike the reverse, I do not need your help."

A loud grinding drowns out any response Aaron could have made as a secret door opens next to where Sailens had put her hand. He's still staring with his jaw dropped when she sweeps into the room. Dumbly, he follows.

"What is this place?" He turns his head from side to side to admire the room. He's expecting a secret archive, but instead is met with a spartan, though private, bedroom with an inside door he guesses leads to a bathroom.

Sailens flops onto the bed and kicks her boots off. "A legacy room. Only those pure of blood can enter. If you attempted to enter, you would have been injected with a most painful and, _eventually_, lethal toxin." Even though her voice is mechanical coming from the droid, she manages to put emphasis on the word.

Aaron shuffles around the edge of the room and sits on the edge of a stiff chair. "Why did you help me? In class, that is. And, well, why show me this place?"

Her droid putters around the room before settling on a shelf near Aaron's head. "In your failures, it is now more than you that will receive punishment." She waves the question away with her hand.

"You mean… if I do something wrong, they'll hurt _you_, too?"

"Yes." She looks up from the bed at him before shrugging and laying back down.

"...shouldn't you, you know, be worried about that?" He leans towards the bed.

She holds up a hand and spins her pointer finger in her circle, her droid spins on the shelf next to him. "Lord Sa'alle expects you to fail horrifically. She looks forward to watching me suffer through no fault of my own. Disappointing her by ensuring you don't…" Sailens grins at him and with the tattoos around her mouth, it looks pointedly cruel.

"Do you hate her that much?"

She pulls the sleeve of her academy robe up past her elbow and Aaron sees for the first time that her hand and entire arm are covered in a web of thin, raised scars. After giving him time to look, she points to her ruined mouth. "What do you think?"

"I hate my master, too." Aaron's voice is low, far from the arrogant tone he's been using since his arrival on Korriban. "But he's so much stronger than me, what can I do?"

Sailens is staring at the ceiling again, spinning her finger and droid around. "A better question is, 'Why did he take you for a student?' A notorious blood supremacist doesn't just wake up one morning and decide to take a half-sultan as a student."

"Sultan? Really?"

She throws up both hands and her droid rolls from side to side on the shelf. "With the lust party tricks. How am I supposed to know? A better question is 'What is a human supremacist like Lord Sa'alle doing betrothing her only heir to a half-breed?'"

"First of all, it's _Zeltron_, and secondly, it's not 'lust party tricks.' And who cares what they're up to?" Aaron crosses his arms and leans back in the chair.

"Beware your master, beware your apprentice, and most importantly, beware those whose motives you do not understand, for you cannot predict their actions."

"I don't need a lesson on being Sith, Sai."

She sits up and slashes her arm to the side, a frown on her face. "If you are not suspicious of this arrangement, then you do."

"I'm not going to base my life on suspicions!"

"You are Sith. Base your life on staying alive. We're in this together now. If I tell you to wonder, then you wonder." She holds out her hand and the droid floats through the air to land there.

"Why should I trust you?" Aaron juts his chin out.

"Why do you hate your master?"

"Don't answer my-" He cuts himself off, not about to play the 'who's more stubborn' game. "He keeps telling me I'm weak. Just because I don't like hurting innocent people. People who haven't done anything to deserve it."

"I can help you become strong enough to choose your own targets and I'm the only one here who needs you alive. Here, he cannot see everything that you learn. Take advantage of it."

Aaron sits silently for a time. At length, he stands. "Teach me how to walk on the sand."

* * *

Sailens is not a forgiving or patient teacher, but she knows the Force well and shoves Sith language lessons down his throat while they work. "No. Again."

Aaron swats at her voice droid, even though he knows he won't hit it. The slight momentum from moving his arms causes him to lose his balance and fall face-first into the searing sand. "You kriffing-"

She unleashes a kick at his stomach, but he rolls back onto his feet and holds his hands in front of him.

"If you want to lose in a spar, we can do that, too, Sai."

"Use the Force, not your fists." She leaps back, well out of range, and lands just on the surface of the dune.

"I'm a combat Sith, I don't need to fight with the Force." As soon as he says the words, he lunges to the side, avoiding the blast of Force lightning she sends his way.

Her droid float around his head and screeches, "Suspicious!"

"He doesn't want his student to steal his knowledge!" He dashes up the side of the dune towards her, but she jumps away before he gets in range.

"You're not thinking like a Sith!"

At her goading, his feet sink and drag into the sand. "I'm just not thinking like _you_."

She stops, faced away from him, and holds up one hand to keep him from attacking.

He stops next to her shoulder, manages to keep his boots from sinking into the sand. "What is it?"

Sailens gestures to a transport ship on the horizon. "New acolytes. If they out perform you…"

"They won't." His voice is as solid as his footing.


	3. Demonstrations

"Studious as ever, I see." Sailens sits next to him on the edge of the rocky canyon. Where she had been small before, now she was all but dwarfed by Aaron's size. Her red hair is short and loose, a style she started wearing in the last year.

He looks down at her, the 30 centimeter height gap obvious even when sitting. Without looking away from her, he tosses another rock into the canyon. "I just… want a break from it all sometimes. Five years is too long to keep one eye on my back the whole time."

She leans back until she's laying on the ground, legs hanging over the edge. A relaxed sigh escapes her mouth. "Have I really been saving your hide for five years?"

"Hey, I managed the tombs without your help."

"And you've been right chuffed about it ever since." Her droid sets on the ground next to her around and rolls over her hair. "What are you now, seventeen?"

"Yes, Sai. My birthday was last week. You forgot. Again." He can't bring himself to get upset about it, though. Not with her laying there with her academy robe pulling over her-

"I don't have a birthday. Why should I care about yours?" She swings her legs and the Force picks up dust and small rocks to swirl around them.

"Because we're _friends_, that's what-" He notices her smirk and growls deep in his chest. "Nevermind. I can't just waltz into a legacy room like you can. And don't get smart with how you'd let me in. You've got the protection of the Sa'alles _and_ the military, with your father."

Without getting up, she pulls her upper robe off and tosses it into the canyon. She closes her eyes and soaks up the heat from the sun on her pale skin. "Some protection."

Aaron knows she's trying to make a point about her torture scars, but he can't get his eyes off the white skin of her stomach and where it disappears under her chest bindings.

She stretches her arms up and yawns. "And the Moff would never go against Lord Sa'alle. You're just making excuses for your own anxiety. For being raised by a Darth, you certainly don't think like a Sith."

_I can't get much thinking done when you're like that!_ He sighs. "I trust _you_. We're in this together." He lowers his hand to the ground between them, hesitating over her stomach.

"Speaking of being in this together, have you actually thought it through?" Her voice snaps his resolve into place and he doesn't touch her.

"...thought it through, how?"

She cracks her eyes open against the glare of the sun and wiggles her fingers at him. A few small stones float around in response. "As a political arrangement, there are certain expectations."

"Well yeah, I mean, we're going to get married in a few years. Isn't that it?" He swallows when she starts wiggling her scarred torso again.

"You're a no one, of course, but I am the only Sa'alle heir. Even if you are a half-breed…" She trails off and smirks at him.

"We're expected to have a child." His blood races almost as quickly as his thoughts as soon as the thought strikes.

"My family is also particularly high class, so once we are apprentices we will be expected to make public appearance. Both Sith and military. Even if most marriages are political, we're expected to seem friendly."

"Uhhh…" Aaron can't respond to her words, still caught up on making a child with her.

"I was under the impression we got along fairly well." She sits up, stretching and meeting his gaze.

"We do. That is, I mean, I even like you. Making appearances wouldn't be, you know, bad, or, anything." He pulls on the collar of his academy robe, tries to keep his eyes on her face, doesn't do very well.

She raises her eyebrows. "But you're upset by the thought of kriffing me?"

"I hadn't really thought about it before." It all comes out in one word and he pulls his knees up to his chest.

Sailens leans in, her chest bindings brushing Aaron's sleeve. "So you have a problem with it."

"No! Yes!" He jumps to his feet and points down at her. "You're doing this on purpose!"

In a single, slow motion Sailens stands with her hands on her hips. "Are you just now realizing this?"

"Come on," he says, already walking towards her. He scoops her up and tosses her over his shoulder. "You're opening one of those legacy rooms and I'm going to show you exactly what I have problems with."

* * *

"I have no idea how you survived this long with no form at all," Aaron says, while he walks a tight circle around Sailens. At one point he stops and moves her arms up.

"I am not subjected to combat trials. She does not will it and so they do not happen." Her speaking droid is resting in the hood of Aaron's academy robe so that he doesn't miss anything she says.

He steps back and clicks his tongue. "That's still no reason not to learn."

Sailens just raises an eyebrow in response.

"Right, right, I _know_, she tortures you. It's just so important! How are you supposed to protect yourself?"

She breaks the posture and rolls her eyes at him. "I can kill a man with my mind," she says, throwing the practice saber away, "What do I need a lightsaber for?"

Aaron picks it up and shoves it back into her hands. "Because if you have skills she doesn't know about, you won't always be under her control."

"I know that, Aaron. I was the one who told _you_ that about sorcery. Unless you were not _listening_?"

"Look Sai, you can smart talk and shake your chest all you want, but I'm going to teach you combat." He corrects her posture, moving shoulders and legs until her stance is correct.

She growls and shakes her head, red hair flying. "This doesn't feel right."

"Well it is! I've been in combat training since I could walk."

"You've also a different body from me! My center of weight isn't located where yours is."

Aaron opens his mouth to retort, but then closes it and stares at her critically. He moves back in and adjusts her body this way and that, frowning the entire time.

"I'm not your mannequin."

"I'm trying to do this right, Sai! You need to be able to defend yourself physically."

"Why?" She bares her teeth at him.

"Because it's only a matter of time before someone tries to attack you and sorcery leaves evidence. Sa'alle isn't the scariest name on Korriban anymore."

"It should be."

Aaron's hands clench into fists and he grits his jaw to keep from yelling at her. "I just want to keep you safe."

"Says the one that constantly needs me to pull him out of the fire." She straightens and drops the practice saber again.

"You're all I have, Sai. Why is it so hard for you to understand that I want to keep you?"

She stares at him for a while before raising her hand. Sailens's droid floats out of his hood and over to her. She presses a few buttons on it and then lets it hang in the air over her shoulder. Then, she meets his eyes again. "Because we are Sith."

Aaron sighs and puts his face in his hands.


	4. Ties

"_What kind of decrepit, brain-rotted sod would do that? Do they think the overseers are imbeciles?_"

Aaron wakes up at the sound of Sailens's voice, but finds himself alone in his dormitory. He blinks and rubs his eyes. "Sai?"

No answer.

He sits up and looks around the room, but aside from his bed and cramped armoire, the room is empty. He scratches his head.

"_Not that I am unskilled at noticing such an egregious change, but doubtless there are Overseers more observant than I._"

He thinks, _I know it's her voice, but she doesn't _have_ a voice, she talks with the droid. And where is she anyway?_

Sailens's critical rambling pauses. _Aaron..?_

"Sai?" He leans over the side of his bed and looks underneath it, but there's still nothing. "Where are you? Can you hear me?"

Again, there's no answer, but Aaron feels a prodding inside his head. His mind flashes back to his master doing _something_ to him that resulted in a similar feeling. He yelps and curls back up in his sparse bed. _Get out of my head!_

_If this is as I believe, there is no chance of that, Aaron._ Her voice is in his head, soft and gentle in a way it never is with the droid.

_What's going on_? He asks in his mind.

_I believe we've a Force bond, now._ A distinct sense of curiosity comes with her words in his head.

He takes a shuddering breath and stretches out. _I didn't realize a Force bond meant… Telepathy. Rencarn was just asking me the other day if I'd made any Force bonds yet._

Sailens doesn't answer immediately, but Aaron's brain starts calling up memories of her yelling "Suspicious!" at him. When she does respond, the words are slow and measured. _Why would he ask you such a thing?_

Aaron relaxes and smirks. _They're fairly common between strong Force users. He said I should form them easily_.

More silence.

Aaron jumps a meter out of his bed when his morning alarm goes off. He stares at it for a moment before shutting it off with a touch of Force.

_I do not believe I will allow you to form Force bonds with others._ Her mental voice is firm.

_You're not jealous, are you_? Even though he asked the question, he's not sure if he means jealous of his ability to create Force bonds or jealous that he might connect with someone else.

_Anyone else you bond with will be able to delve into my mind from _our_ connection. That is unacceptable_. Her tone is clipped and brokers no argument.

In a deeper, more private part of his mind, Aaron thinks, _I never woulda thought she had so much emotion in her voice_. Then he frowns when the implications of her words sink in. _You're right. I don't want to put you danger. ...I don't want to leave myself vulnerable like that, either, actually… Should I ask Rencarn about how to prevent them?_

_No_!

Aaron _thinks_ he feels a spike of fear from her. He rubs a hand across his face.

_No, Aaron. I believe I can acquire a… a trinket that will prevent you from forming more bonds._ Her mental voice is shakey and… unsettled? It's nothing Aaron's ever heard from her before.

_Right. Whatever you say, Sai._

_Don't tell Rencarn!_ Her voice is sharp.

_I won't, I won't. _His eyes go wide and he stares at the alarm clock he'd shut off. "I'm going to be late!" He scrambles around the tiny room and yanks his academy robe on. As he rushes out of the room, he sends Sailens one last thought. _I trust you when you say not to tell him. Trust that I won't._

* * *

Aaron touches the trinket underneath his robe and watches the milling Sith and Imperial socialites. It was nice to be off of Korriban, but now Aaron felt like he was spinning his wheels as Recarn's apprentice. _We're supposed to be learning, not play-acting in front of these nobodies._

_Are you not impressed by this luxurious hall and decadent food?_ Sailens smirks and tilts her head, the gold tinsel in her hair shifting and sparkling in the bright, artificial light. She was having a much easier time of it. Being mute had the advantage of no one deigning to speak with her.

He pulled at the collar of his robe. _Maybe if they spoke Basic. Or if these robes were comfortable._ Across the hall, he sees another apprentice trip and drop a tray of drinks. Aaron cringes. _That won't end well for him_.

_Not at all_. Sailens subconsciously leans forward to get a better look at the resulting strike of Force lightning. _One benefit of Rencarn not teaching you is that he isn't punishing you._

He reaches the rub the back of his head, but stops just short of messing up his hair. _Raven says I'm lucky for it. Apparently, Recarn is pretty free with his Force lightning._ Aaron pauses._ Yes, I know, suspicious._

_At least you're-_ Sailens cuts herself off as a short, bejewelled pureblood approaches them. She smiles, large and false, and gives him a polite wave. _Don't forget your greeting_.

Aaron resists the urge to chew his tongue off and then begins the usual song and dance for speaking with an unknown Sith. He plasters a smile on his face while the stranger responds.

_He's just bragging about his estate. Sounds like a gaudy mess._ She pretends to take a sip of her drink.

Aaron compliments the man appropriately, though he stumbles over the pronunciation. _Rencarn and Sa'alle wouldn't be caught dead speaking to these nothings_.

_Of course not, that's why they have us_. She flicks her wrist and the champagne in her glass splashes out and lands on the floor rather than her dress. Sailens tenses.

_What-_ Aaron leaves his own question hanging as a tall, lithe woman with sharp features and dark hair sweeps in front of them. His eyes drift to the neckline of her scalloped, black gown.

The newcomer bows first before Sailens and then gives Aaron a formal nod. She addresses Sailens. "A pleasure to see you here, my lord."

Sailens frowns, her mouth pulling its tattoos down with the motion. She gestures to Aaron. _Tell her, "This is unexpected._"

He echoes her words. "This is unexpected."

"Old habits die hard, as they say." The woman's lips are dark red, a stark contrast with her milk-white skin. She turns her gaze onto Aaron. "I am Na'li'a, my lord. A _professional_ of the court, thought I have kept to myself in recent years."

"I'm Aaron… Apprentice to Darth Rencarn." _Professional of the court?_

_Later_.

"An honor." She bows. "Our friend is wondering if his gift is working properly." She raises the hairless ridge above one of her eyes.

_Tell her it is doing its duty and that our friend need not worry._

"Uh… It's working. They don't have to worry." This time his hand makes it to the back of his head before he remember not to ruffle his hair.

"Always good to hear. Do remain in contact." She bows and Aaron sees her elaborate headdress shift forward. "And congratulations on your upcoming nuptials."

"Er, thanks." He stares at her as she walks away with her train of her gown sweeping away her steps. _What was that about? Who was she? Who's watching us?_

Sailens ignores his mental questions, instead turns her attention to a steward to hand over her empty champagne flute.

_Sai, I trusted you about the trinket…_

_It's my father. He made the trinket._ She turns her face away from him, but he can read her emotions from their Force bond.

_You're father? The Moff? How could he…_

_The Moff isn't my father. His blood is tainted, unworthy. The one who made the trinket is a pure human, as am I._

Aaron's mouth opens and closes as he tries to process this information. _And that woman?_

_My father's wife. A courtesan before my father caught her eye._

"Sai…" He lifts his hand to touch her shoulder, but drops it just before making contact. In the private part of his mind he thinks, _I cannot show that I know any of this._ He shakes his head. "Suspicious is right."


End file.
